Finance: the agency WARA degrades note the port of Dakar – Jeune Afrique

 The West African rating agency lowered by one notch to “BBB” rating of the Autonomous Port of Dakar, learned “Jeune Afrique”. The cause: the deterioration of its financial position and the quality of its governance.

In a report to be released this week and which has had access Young and East Africa e, the rating agency West Africa rating agency (WARA) declined to “BBB +” to “BBB” rating of the autonomous Port of Dakar (PAD).

the decision says the agency headed by Seydina Tandian “reflects the weakening of the quality of governance of the Port, and the deterioration of its structural financial position”.

Among the difficulties encountered by the rating agency are: the low margin of the public company (less than 3% in 2012-2013) due to poor control of certain expense items, including personnel; gaps in the collection of receivables, particularly, those in the public sector (19 billion CFA francs and an increase of 1 billion per year); but also, and especially, the uncertainties surrounding the relationship between the manager of the Dubai Port World Container, the Autonomous Port of Dakar and the state.

The PAD, 100% owned by the Senegalese government, granted concessions to Dubai Port World, in 2007, for the management of the container terminal, the French Necotrans and Bolloré (2013-2014) for the management of bulk and RoRo terminals respectively

<. strong> risk

in his study, WARA notes “a significant contractual risk ‘associated with the operating agreement with Dubai Port World. Indeed, an investigation was opened in 2013 by the General Inspectorate of the State on the conditions for granting the concession and the ticket paid. After which a request for arbitration was filed by DPW to the International Court of Arbitration of the Chamber of Commerce in Paris in October 2013. The tension and delays in the construction of the project “Port of the Future” to modernize the infrastructure of the terminal PAD containers are so many uncertainties about the prospects of the public company.

Another pitfall if the agency considers the management team of PAD “solid , skilled and experienced, “she was surprised at the” ambiguous “G3S contract with the group, in charge of the security of port facilities and the ISO 28000 certification and which many quite surprising facilities were granted: as part of this contract (indeterminate and with an annual cost in million euros), the port of Dakar agrees to substitute for borrowings at G3S and ensure only the refund without any liability G3S …

strategic position

Despite these reservations, the diagnosis of WARA however remains optimistic note Dakar port remains in the category of the investment and say its outlook is stable. The agency also recalls the strategic position of the port of Dakar in West Africa and its indispensable role in the country: 30% of the state budget and nearly 90% of its customs revenue is estimated to WARA .

the freight traffic was 13.4 million tons in 2014 to PAD, for a turnover of 34.7 billion CFA francs (+ 11.2%) and net income 5.79 billion CFA francs (an increase of 529.5% biased due mainly to the recognition of the complement DPW entry ticket for a sum of 24.6 billion CFA francs).

Joel Tee-Lesya